Good morning, and welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple. My name is Hidaigaku Rume, and I'm a resident of this building, 300 page, so of course I recognize many faces, and there are some that I do not, but I would especially like to welcome those people who are here for the very first time. Some time ago I was... leaving the building I was on my way out of the building going down the front steps and another resident was on her way in and she greeted me we greeted each other and she asked me well where are you going and I explained that I was on my way to another Zen center to give a talk and she said well what are you going to talk about I said oh some basic principles of Zen And you know what she said? She said, you know, I can never get enough of that.

[01:04]

And that's been my feeling over the years too. That I've never been able to hear the basic principles of Zen too many times. So that's what I'd like to talk about this morning. You can think of this as an introduction to Zen. Okay? And I find that I often come back to two principle questions. What is Zen practice? And secondly, why do we do it? In other words, what is the objective of Zen practice? And I believe that if we're not very clear about those answers, it's very likely we'll just go round and round in circles. So I would like to make a plea that if you do have questions about what Zen is or why we do it, that you bring up those questions. And there will be time actually today. I will be speaking for about 35 or 40 minutes, not too long. There will be time after the talk for questions. If questions come up about anything I say, or if you'd rather do it at some other time, I really encourage you to ask questions.

[02:13]

It's important to have questions and to ask them. We say listening, thinking, practicing. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but it's a very important way that we come into the teaching. So in other words, somehow or other, we come in contact with the teaching, which pretty much means that we either hear somebody speaking about it or we read about it. And it's possible that there's somebody here this morning who is hearing about the Zen teaching for the very first time. And I'm curious, how many people have never been here before? I'd just like to see, and don't be shy. I think you're really fortunate to be beginners, actually. Okay, thanks. It's important to ask, well, what is Zen, for example? And one of my favorite examples is a teaching of Dogen Zenji. And Dogen Zenji, as many of you know, was the great Japanese priest

[03:17]

the one who originally went to China about 800 years ago and brought this teaching back to Japan. We think of him as the founder of the Soto School in Japan. And probably his best-known teaching goes like this. To study the way of Buddha is to study the self. So in other words, if you want to know what a totally liberated, awakened human being is, Darwin says study the self. He doesn't say study the sutras or even do meditation. He says study the self. And then he continues, to study the self is to forget the self. And I often think the question could arise, how can you study the self if you forget it? And I don't know if any of you have ever had that question. Or we could turn it around and say, if you forget the self, how can you study it? And there's any number of other questions that could arise.

[04:24]

For example, why is sitting quietly facing the wall the practice of a Buddha? Why is that to be a Buddha? And I believe that these are questions that we have to be able to answer. And it might take a while. Even if you've got a good answer to your question, that might simply be the seed for more questions. So it's important to think about those answers. What does that mean? To really think about it. And then to take the question back to the teacher and ask and think and ask and so on. This would take some time probably. And then... When we really have a handle on the principles of the practice, we can really dive into it and just go straight. And we won't worry about, well, am I going to hit my head on something? Or how long is it going to take?

[05:25]

Or am I really doing it right? Or maybe most importantly, what's going to happen as a result of practice? Very important question. So I encourage you to ask questions, to have questions. I believe you all have questions or you wouldn't be here this morning. So I thought to start out with the question, what is Zen? Because this is a word that we see quite frequently in the popular culture, right? Media, New York Times, advertising, very often used in advertising these days. It has a lot of commercial value, it seems. Restaurants, health salons, many books, Zen and the art of bridge, poker, golf. You took your pick. People get a lot of miles out of the word Zen, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people know what it means, right?

[06:32]

But we can get a hint of what it means from the Chinese character that is used in China, Korea. and Japan to write this word, Zen or Chan. And this character is actually comprised of two smaller characters. The one on the left means to point at, or to indicate, or to demonstrate. And the character on the right means one, or whole, or complete. And so we can infer from this that Zen is a teaching, pointing at the underlying essential oneness of all things. And personally, I think that all human beings would like to awaken to that oneness of all things, regardless of whether they have heard about Zen or not. Because if we don't really make that oneness of our own, we'll never know true satisfaction.

[07:36]

We will not be able to bring an end to suffering. we will not really be able to set this world on the course towards world peace. So it's very important, I believe. And we believe as Buddhists that the very first human being to really make this oneness of all things his own was Shakyamuni Buddha. So not just conceptually, he didn't just read about it or think about it or talk to other people about it. He actually made it his own. And I know many of you are familiar with his story, but allow me just to speak a little bit about his story because I think it helps to understand, well, this oneness of all things, it does sound kind of abstract and maybe mystical for some people. He lived about 2,500 years ago. We know that he was born a prince, so I believe he would have had everything he wanted.

[08:38]

Sometimes I try to imagine what he had. Tigers maybe, pet tiger, elephants, chariots, horses, castles. We know that he was married. He had a child. He was on course to become the ruler of that clan or kingdom. So he had everything that most people would very much like to have. Power, wealth. material things and so on but even though he had all of those things more than he needed and much more it was not enough to keep away a question that had been with him probably since he was younger and that question was how can I bring an end to human suffering and traditionally in Buddhism we say there are four basic sufferings birth death

[09:40]

old age, and sickness. These are sufferings that none of us can escape. I often think when you're young, I think there are a few young people here, maybe not too many, but when you're young and healthy, you might think, well, what's the big deal? So I'd like to mention the other four basic sufferings because they're a little bit easier for younger people to relate to. They are always being separate from people you love. And always having to live and work, and if you're a student, to study with people you hate. That's true. Third, never being able to find what you're seeking for, no matter how much you seek for. And finally, that this thing, commonly called the human body and mind, is like a vessel that collects suffering.

[10:42]

And that's the bad news. I say that's the proverbial bad news. The good news is that Shakyamuni Buddha did find a way to bring an end to suffering. But it wasn't that easy. First of all, he had to let go of those responsibilities he had as a father and as a husband, as a son. and to his countrymen as the next ruler of that kingdom, right? It wouldn't have been easy to walk out on those responsibilities. Just think about it a little bit. And yet he was compelled to do that. I imagine he would have had to escape, to do that secretly, to escape from the castle without other people knowing. But in any case he did, and we know that he joined up with... priests, monks, seekers. And he would have cut off his hair, shaved his beard, and we know that he studied with two well-known teachers of his day.

[11:51]

And the practice that they did is called asceticism. And ascetic practice is the idea that by physically harming the body in various ingenious ways, that it's possible that to overcome these difficulties we have. And he did that wholeheartedly. In fact, he did it so much that he later said, after two or three years of doing that, that he had done everything. That there would be nobody, past, present, or future, who would ever do that kind of ascetic practice as intensely as he had. Quite a statement. But it just shows you how far he pushed himself. But he realized at a certain point that even if he were to push himself to the point of death, that that was not going to give him the resolution he was looking for. If he were to die, that would be the end of it.

[12:55]

He was looking for something eternal, something that would not pass away, something that would not die. And so he was compelled, once again, to leave that ascetic practice, to leave his comrades, his teachers. Again, this would have been difficult. It would have been going out on his own, without any guarantee that he was going to be able to resolve that question. And yet he had to. And so he went and sat by himself. We were taught that he did that for six years, a long time. to be grappling with his own questions and doubts and fears. And in the process of doing that, it was as if he had really just wrung himself out like an old rag. And so it happened. The one morning, after six years of sitting there, he looked up in the sky and he saw what we call the morning star or Venus.

[13:57]

And on that particular morning, the light of the star And Shakyamuni Buddha, when he saw it, at that instant they became one. And they both disappeared. So in essence, this was his realization. This was his awakening. His realization that in fact all things are one. And that there never had been a separate individual self. And that all along he had been creating his own problems. That suffering is something that we create on our own. And he said various things at that moment of awakening. But one of them I think many of you are familiar with because it's the very last words of the Hanyashingya of the Heart Sutra which we read here nearly every day. We leave it in the original Sanskrit, right?

[15:01]

I've done it. I've crossed over to the other side. I've brought an end to suffering. But the important point for us is, he also said, not only me, but all sentient beings are in the state of Buddhahood. Past, present, and future. Siliate. And this is important for us because it means that everybody in this room right now, as you are, are in the same condition as the enlightened Buddha. The only catch is, and I have to say it's a big one, we just don't realize it. So Zen is also not only a teaching pointing at the underlying oneness of all things, it's a practice of realizing for ourselves that

[16:01]

of really confirming for ourselves that we, that this thing, as it is, is the Buddha. So after his realization, he realized that he had to try and tell other people about what he had discovered. And in the course of his teaching career, he taught for 49 years. It was worth... Thousands of teachings. We say traditionally 84,000 teachings, right? Many more than any of us could easily read. Maybe one of us or the unusual person. We often have time and difficulty just reading a few. But fortunately, well, for better or worse, we can summarize these teachings with three basic points. We call these the three seals of the Dharma. The Dharma is a word that we use to talk about.

[17:03]

It's a Sanskrit word referring to this oneness of all things, the Dharma. Three aspects of the Dharma that will never change. And I think many of you are familiar with them. The first is that everything is impermanent. From morning to evening, from day to day, things are constantly changing And that means that nothing remains the same for even one instant. And we see this happening in our life all the time. Time, we just can't turn back the hands of time. It's just going straight. Can't really hold on to time or keep things from changing. And that refers to this thing as well, what we often think of as me. But technically speaking, from the point of view of Buddhism, this thing that we think of as me right now at 10.30 in the morning or whatever time it is, it's different than the self that got up at 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock, whatever time you happen to get up this morning.

[18:17]

This thing is also constantly changing, although we don't often think of that because we have that reference. We like that reference called me. That's the first seal of the Dharma. That everything is constantly changing. The second part is a clearer. Because everything is constantly changing, that means that things do not have a fixed self nature. Like this lectern. If we were to look at this under a microscope, for example, we would not see a lectern there. We would just simply see smaller and smaller elements. Typically... And traditionally in Buddhism we say that all things are created of the same four basic elements. Earth, air, water, and fire. And of course now in the modern days we know that those things are also created of smaller things. Call them atoms or quarks. I'm not very up on that. But anyway, smaller and smaller elements.

[19:18]

They keep trying to find the smallest one. It seems likely to me that they'll always find something smaller. But in any case, the idea is that all things are created of the same elements. That means that all things are equal in that regard. And even from that point of view, we could say that everything is one, if everything is made of the same components. And that also refers to this, me. The me isn't really here. You can't find me in this shoulder or arm or hand. The abdomen. The head. It's just not there. Me is an idea that we like to carry along with ourselves, but in fact, there is no me. And that brings us to the third fear of the Dharma, the third aspect of the Dharma that will never change, which is that the moment now is nirvana.

[20:24]

And nirvana is another Sanskrit word we use for that state of perfect peace and freedom. That is what we are looking for. That is the peace and freedom we are looking for. The irony is, it's right in front of us all the time. We just have that habit of always looking over there, right? We have that expression, the grass is always greener on the other side. Right? or maybe it's around the corner, or maybe it's in the next book of Zen. And so on. But the teaching of Zen is that right now is nirvana. So once again, Zen practice is about really confirming that the moment now is that peace and freedom that we're looking for. Again, that's no easy thing to do. Let the the teaching of Zen is certainly pointing at that.

[21:26]

As Blayana Zenji famously said, everybody, including your enemies, is amply endowed with the Dharma or, say, Buddha nature. Same thing. But... Without practice, without Zen practice, it isn't manifested. That Dharma nature, that freedom isn't manifested. Without confirmation, without verifying it for yourself, it isn't attained. In other words, you can't really use it. I'd like to speak a little bit about Zazen. That's the practice of meditation that is really the center of our practice. And in reference to that, I'd like to speak about a man named Bodhidharma. I think, well, there was recently a statue of him on the altar. There is a big painting of him in the hallway. Bodhudharma lived about 1,500 years ago. He was an Indian prince who became a monk, priest, and so on.

[22:36]

He was the person we credit for bringing Zazen, the meditation practice we call Zazen, from India to China. Before Bodhidharma arrived in China, the Buddhist teaching had slowly been coming into China from India. I think mainly along the Silk Road. So very gradually, sutras from Sanskrit and Pali had been translated into Chinese. It took a few hundred years, 500 years, it is said. By the time Bodhidharma arrived in China, there were already many Zen, or not Zen, but Buddhist priests, And temples. In fact, the emperor as well was proud of being a Buddhist. And yet I often like to make this analogy because they only had the sutras until he brought what we call the medicine of Zazen.

[23:40]

They only had the teachings which they would read and discuss and maybe argue about and so on. I like to give this analogy. Imagine you have a headache. And usually, no big deal, right? But today, well, you just feel like having some medicine, taking some medicine. So you ask your roommate or your spouse or something, do you have anything, some aspirin, some Tylenol or something, and she gives you a bottle and says, well, make sure to take the right amount, okay? So read how much to take. So you look on there and it says, take two tablets every four hours or whatever. But when you look in the bottle, There's no medicine. There's no aspirin there. Simply reading the prescription for the medicine would not cure your headache, right? Simply reading the sutras or reading all those books about Zen is not going to resolve your suffering.

[24:44]

That is the practice of Zazen. So I encourage all of you to do Zauzen. But what is Zauzen? This is a story that I'm very fond of. A story from China. We often use stories from China to illustrate points of Zen. A famous story called... Well, I don't even know if it does have a title. But it has to do with a man named Matsu. Also, I'm more used to these names in Japanese. And he was sitting Zazen. He was the student, the disciple. Very earnestly sitting Zazen one day. And his master, Nangaku, came along and said, asked him, excuse me, but what are you doing there so earnestly? And Basu said, can't you see? I'm doing Zazen.

[25:44]

Well, I didn't see that, but why are you doing Zazen? And Basso said, my intention is to become a Buddha. And Nangaku, he went down into the garden and he picked up a piece of rubbish, a piece of broken roof tile, and he began to scratch that piece of roof tile with a rock. And Basso, the disciple, saw his master doing that and he said, Master, what are you doing? What is your intention? And Nangaku said, The master said, well, I'm making this into a mirror. Can't you see? In some versions, it says a jewel. Take your pick. And the student said, is it really possible to make that piece of broken roof tile into a jewel simply by scratching on it with a rock? I don't think so. And the master said, is it really possible to become a Buddha by doing Zazen? That's the punchline of the story.

[26:47]

Right? Right? I know you know the story. This is a very important story. It's also a very subtle story. But what is the point of the story? Can I explain it to you? I can explain, I can try. It is said that also the student realized he'd been making a mistake. And the mistake that he realized was that he had been using Zazen to get something. to get something in the future, to become a Buddha. He thought that he wasn't a Buddha now, so he was going to become a Buddha by doing practice, by Zazen. And I would suggest that this is something we may have different terms for it, but it's something that's quite easy for us to do as well. I want to be peaceful, so I'm going to do Zazen. I want to become quiet.

[27:51]

So I'm going to do Zazen. So the point of this story is that if you're doing that, that's a mistake. So when did Gasser realize? He realized that the whole point of Zazen is just to be Zazen. In other words, to eliminate that sense of separation between me Me and Zazen. Because as long as there was a separation between me and Zazen, that is not Zazen. Zazen is another word for that underlying oneness of all things. And if we are aware of our Zazen, oh, it's really going well today. If I could only keep it going this way. Earlier the next time he said, Don, gee, I just can't sit at all today.

[28:57]

If we don't let go of those kind of discriminations and simply eliminate that sense of separation, we will never realize the point that this is the Buddha already. Its practice is not about a matter of becoming something. that the six sense functions, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking. Thinking is also, in Buddhism, a sense function. That those things, if we could just simply get out of the way and let them work freely, that that would be a Buddha. I'd like to leave you with one last thing, a short poem from Japanese, a four-line poem that I'd like to... You might be able even to memorize it. The first line is, this very moment.

[30:04]

And the second line is, just think of only this. And the third line is, the past cannot return. And the fourth line is, the future cannot be known. And I think this poem describes quite well the attitude of Zen practice, this matter of eliminating, that sense of separation between me and whatever activity we're doing. So I would like to say, to suggest, that Zazen is not restricted to sitting like this, facing a wall in the Zen. It could even be behind a computer or driving your car or talking to a friend. If your intention is to simply be that activity completely, that would be great zazen. So, just think of this present moment.

[31:10]

The past cannot return. We know that, right? Even five minutes ago, the past. The past is something that we cannot... hold on to nor can we change it even though we often find ourselves dwelling shall I say or even obsessing about something that happened this morning or maybe yesterday or last week we get into these things where we get into these loops right but if we think about it for just a second we know the past is is something that we cannot change. And on the other hand, the future is something that we do not know. Even five minutes from now, it's impossible to know what's going to happen, even though we often presume to know how things are going to go, what we're going to do this afternoon, this evening, tomorrow, and so on.

[32:20]

We can predict what's going to happen, but we certainly don't know what's going to happen. And I believe, even on a daily basis, we have that experience that things don't go the way we want them to. In fact, in Zen we say, things never go the way we want them to. And I also think that was so depressing. But the flip side of that is that everything is perfect right now. if we would simply leave it being. But we have that habit of dividing the moment now in half. And it's simply impossible even for the Buddha to know the moment now. That is, for some of you who are familiar with Zen, what we call the unthinkable, the imperceivable.

[33:28]

We are in the habit of dividing that moment now in half, past and future. So again, I would like to say that Zen practice is about, in that sense of eliminating that sense of separation, Because the more separation that we feel between me and somebody else or some other activity, the more hellish our life is. So really, to bring an end, to really just be here, to really entrust yourself or abandon yourself to the way things are, is Zen practice. That is the way to bring an end to suffering. Well, I have finished a little bit early. That's okay. Once again, I invite you to ask questions.

[34:38]

Remember, listening. And I see that you people are listening. Thinking. In Zen, we just don't swallow it whole or believe in it blindly. You know, bring those questions to your teachers. And then, When you understand that practice is necessary, then really dive into it and let go of all of those concepts. Just do it, okay? Well, thanks for listening.

[35:14]

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